Short exposure to a foreign accent impacts subsequent cognitive processes

Foreign accent does not influence cognitive judgments

A recent paper by Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010) reported that the processing fluency associated with non-native speech causes non-native speakers to sound less credible. The authors found that the same trivia statements were rated as less truthful when spoken by a non-native speaker of English. The present paper reports the results of three studies that attempted to replicate the findings of Lev-Ar...

A Computational Approach to Foreign Accent Classification

Foreign Accent Classification

We worked to create an effective classifier for foreign accented English speech in order to determine the origins of the speaker. Using pitch features, we first classify between two accents, German and Mandarin, and then expanded to a set of twelve accents. We achieved a notable improvement over random performance and gained insights into the strengths of and relationships between the accents w...

Generating segmental foreign accent

For most of us, speaking in a non-native language involves deviating to some extent from native pronunciation norms. However, the detailed basis for foreign accent (FA) remains elusive, in part due to methodological challenges in isolating segmental from suprasegmental factors. The current study examines the role of segmental features in conveying FA through the use of a generative approach in ...

Fluctuating accent in foreign accent syndrome: A case study

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a rare acquired neurogenic speech disorder characterised by the emergence of an accented speech. The aim of this study is to describe the speech characteristics of LK, a FAS speaker who also shows fatigue and cognitive difficulties. Perceptual as well as acoustic analyses show that LK’s speech characteristics are comparable to those found in the literature, but ...